Question Question about .3ds Textures

[Tchail]

I have a question about exporting .3ds files from 3ds Max.

I prefer to use Maya for modelling, but I've found a way of exporting my model from Maya to 3ds Max while preserving the texture coordinates by using the .obj format.

But when I tried to export my model from 3ds Max to bring it into Animator using the .3ds file format, Animator did not locate any of my texture files. (I'm bringing the model into Animator in order to reset the model's pivot point around the center of the model. Is there a way to do this in 3ds Max?)

So how are textures in the .3ds format handled?

I thought I heard that they are limited to eight characters.

Do they have to be stored in the same directory as the scene file?

Or am I chasing a wild goose here - do I really need to use Animator at all?

Thanks in advance,

-Tchail

 

[Mindblast]

I'm bringing the model into Animator in order to reset the model's pivot point around the center of the model. Is there a way to do this in 3ds Max?

Its in the hierarchy tab to the right.. (the symbol with one bigger square and 3 smaller ones connected by lines to the big one). Under Pivot you can "Reset Pivot" or just activate "Affect Pivot Only" and then move the pivot around with the usual move tool.
Are you trying to set the center of mass for orbiter this way ? I'm not sure how other .msh exporters are handling that but Orbiter just uses the coordinate center as the center of mass by default. So you wouldn't have to move the pivot really.. just move the model around so that the coordinate center sits where your center of gravity is supposed to be.
You can try exporting directly from 3DSMax using [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=4185"]max2msh[/ame]. It doesn't support multi-materials yet though, so it might not work, i'm not sure what a model imported from Maya would look like.

 

[Tchail]

Are you trying to set the center of mass for orbiter this way ?

Yes, that's exactly what I'm trying to do.

As you know, you need the center of mass to be able to locate thrusters and docking points.

Is there another way of doing this?

So far, I'm using 7 textures and 8 shaders on my model.

The model appears fine, with all textures, when I bring the model into 3ds Max as an .obj file.

It's just the export out to .3ds that I'm having trouble with.

If I'm having trouble exporting out to .3ds, then chances are that I would also have trouble with the 3ds2msh program.

I just haven't gotten to that step there yet.

Any suggestions?

-Tchail

 

[Spike Spiegel]

I'm not sure if this is exactly on-topic, but I found this technique helpful when trying to translate 3ds Max's coordinates into what Orbiter's coordinates would be:

1. As suggested above, position your model so its center of gravity is at the coordinate center (0, 0, 0).

2. Select the entire model and make a Group.

3. Reset the pivot point of this group to 0, 0, 0 the way Mindblast describes. (Make sure it actually gets set there. I found this a little buggy; when I switch back to affecting the whole model, sometimes the pivot seems like it wasn't moved.)

4. Rotate the entire model -90 degrees around the X axis.

Now 3ds Max's X, Y, Z coordinates will be equal to Orbiter's X, Y, Z coordinates, making it much easier to locate points on your mesh.

Like I said, I don't know if this is exactly what you're looking for, but maybe it will help anyway. I also use the max2msh plugin and haven't really had any trouble as long as I didn't use multi/sub-object materials.

 

[Mindblast]

Yep.. what Spike said..

Also:

Yes, that's exactly what I'm trying to do.
So far, I'm using 7 textures and 8 shaders on my model.

I'm not sure how you model materials in Maya but orbiter doesn't support special shaders currently (don't know if theres anything on the horizon with the beta and Orbiter Visualisation Project). You are limited to a pretty much standard Phong-like model using ambient and diffuse color, specular highlight and opacity as parameters.
So theres probably no way of exporting your shaders to orbiter.

If I'm having trouble exporting out to .3ds, then chances are that I would also have trouble with the 3ds2msh program.

With max2msh you don't need to export a .3ds file, max2msh is a maxscript that exports directly from 3DSMax.
That said it will probably have problems exporting your materials because of the shaders.

 

[Tchail]

Nope, I'm not doing anything special with the shaders.

Just a straightforward Lambert shader with a 2d texture applied as a color map.

I've successfully textured my model brought it into 3ds Max and am now ready to start playing with 3ds Max and the import into Orbiter.

Thanks,

-Tchail

 

[Tchail]

Hey Guys,

I've successfully managed to bring a textured model into Animator.

(Even though I had to delete all the shaders in Animator and re-assign the texture maps.)

See the attached image.

But when I export my file as a .3ds model, then use 3ds2msh to bring the model into Orbiter, my model is textured, but the texture maps are severely skewed.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks,

-Tchail